President Lee, Obama, Ban Among Candidates for KT Person of Year
By Kang seung-woo
Staff Repoter
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and United Nation (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon were also strong candidates for the Person of the Year for 2008. The former Seoul mayor, perceived as being a good economic manager, was elected as the 17th president with a 47.8 percent of the vote in December 2007 among hopes of revitalizing struggling local economy although the ballot turned out to be one of the lowest ever for a South Korean election.
However, a setback in his cabinet shuffle got him to hobble and candlelit vigils against U.S. beef import landed him a haymaker to a one-digit approval rating.
On-going United States-originated economic turmoil is mounting another challenge to already-knocked down Lee. Unlike other candidates, Lee, 67, has been at a center of storm all through the year. Obama became the first African-American to be elected as the 44th United States president. The 47-year-old native of Hawaii defeated John McCain in the general election with 365 electoral votes to 173. Obama, a graduate of Columbia University, is the third to take office as a sitting-senator and first since 1960. He will take oath on Jan. 20 2009.
Ban is the first South Korean to head an international organization. Since succeeding Kofi Annan in January 2007, the 64-year-old former diplomat has worked on global warming, peace talks of Middle East and Darfur. But the time he was elected could not match Kim’s achievement.